What % downpayment did you make on your home?

[cgcruz]

I dont know how people living in this area can affford to put down 20%. Houses here now average $300,000-$400,000 for a regular 2 floor home. Heck , i've seen condos going for $600,000. Who are dumb enough to drop that kinda cash, who knows? If I ever plan on buying my own place, I will have to move out of this area....hmmm... Central Florida sounds nice!

 

[wide awake]

VA no-no loan...in other words no down, no closing. And yes, our ratios were fine...now that the house has tripled in value and our income has also tripled...I was very careful when I bought this house, picked a good floor plan in a great neighborhood, wonderful school district...bought new so no repairs, carpet replacement, etc...We could move up, but we're waiting to do that till we cash out and move to a cheaper area of the country. Then I'll have around 3000 sq feet, an acre lot, gourmet kitchen...DH will be retired, and we'll only be 45.

 

[marcyinPA]

We bought our home in 1999, and scraped together 5%. Unfortunately, we had just gone through a job lay-off, and my DH had just gotten a new job. We also owned another home, which we couldn't sell, but rented out because we had moved to another state (for the job that he was laid off from...that was a disaster...we had only moved a year before he was laid off, so we moved back home to PA. I was pregnant with our second child, and our original house was rented. Our tenants entered an agreement of sale with us, and everything was good to go. We entered an agreement of sale on our current home, and then our tenants backed out of the deal. UGH. Quickly put the house back on the market, settled on our current house, and carried two loans for a few months. It was a MESS.

I am SO glad that we went through with purchasing our current home. We have equity out the ying-yang now, and our mortgage payment is about $800. We can most definitely afford this house and wouldn't be able to afford any other at this point!

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Mine was strange. Had brand new construction in a new development. Due to various reasons start was delayed, as well as construction delays due to hurricanes.

Base price of the house when we signed the purchase contract was $199,000. We had $38,000 in customizations and upgrades bringing it to $237,000. However, in the 15 months between contact signing and closing the base price of that model went up by $55,000, so when I went to closing the value was $292,000.

We had to put down $5,000 when we signed the contract and another $15,000 was due two months later. We paid $3,000 as a redraw fee, and when all the customizations and upgrades were figured out we had to come up with another $19,000 (which was half of the upgrades and customizations), for a total $42,000 before any construction started.

When I went to closing I came up with another $100,000 so my down payment was effectively $142,000. But then the mortgage only started at $102,000 and after a little more than a year is down to about $96,500.

Actually the bank (BofA) also offerred me a $110,000 HELOC but I said keep it to the IRS deductibility maximum of $100,000 and so I have the unused line and only $96,500 mortgage balance on a home currently valued at about $350,000.

 

[kydisneyfans]

3% here in 2004-mainly due to a job move and our old home not being sold yet. We did an interest only to get in and refinanced when our old home sold. I would rather use the money to pay down depreciating or non secure debt first-plus I get the interest deduction on federal taxes.

 

[staceyfe]

On our 1st house in '93, we put down 3% on an FHA loan. I thank God that was available to us as it would have taken us years to save for 20%. Those years would have been wasted in rent, foregoing the equity. On the house we're presently in, it ended up being about 18% down. As soon as we hit the 20% equity, we got that PMI off the loan. PMI is like watching cash flush down the toilet! Now we're set to have the house paid for in 8 years, 8 months

 

[babiesX2]

Our 1st house Dh bought before we were married. He qualified for a VA loan and had no down payment. Long story, but we put lots of sweat equity into the house by removing 60's wallpaper, painting the cabinets, tiling the floors, repainted every room, installed a shower in the front bathroom that only had a tub, and too much list. Our hard work paid off because we sold it in Oct/05 for a nice hefty profit. Naturally, we rolled the profit on the old house into our new house purchase. I'm fairly certain that we had more than 20% to put down. Our down payment was large enough that we got out of "PMI."

 

[MrsPete]

I was just reading an article on debt management. The author stated that he believes that if you can't put down 20%, you can't afford the house. So I was wondering, with the popularity of creative financing these days, how many of us put down 20% or more when buying our homes.

We bought our home in April 1994 and put down 20%.

How about everyone else?

We bought our first house in 1990 (same week we were married), and we put down something like 8%. I'm not certain that's true because it's been quite some time ago, and because my then-fiance bought the house on his own.

We moved to a larger house, nearer to work in 2002 and didn't need a mortgage. We plan to stay here until the girls are out of high school, then we'll move to a townhouse. Our house is ideally located, and I expect we'll sell for a good profit; I'll be happy if we can "break even" when we move again.

 

[tinan]

When we bought almost 6 years ago, I think we were right around 10% down. We got a 15 year mortgage so only 9 more years to go! DH keeps saying that he would like to move to a larger house, but financially it does not make sense right now. As we grow older he talks about getting an RV and travelling some. With that in mind, I keep telling him we should just stay here so we can do all we want. In 9 years we'll be 45 and both girls should be off to college.

We were approved for a much larger mortgage than we took and I have to agree with the OP about people getting a larger mortgage than they can afford. Although on the other hand, I don't believe that if you can't afford a 20% downpayment that you can afford the house. My brother just bought my uncle's house with my mom's and my coaxing with 0% down and he will be able to afford the house. He was looking at another house at more than double the price of my uncle's, approved for and would have lost because there was no way he would have been able to afford it.

 

[IDoDis]

1st house: 10% (1990 - prices were a lot less so 10% was also less)
2nd house: 40% (1999 - equity from 1st house)

 

[Paging Tom Morrow]

Whoever thinks you should have 20% to put down on a house is an idiot. Sorry to be harsh, but it all depends on the market you are buying into.

In 2003, we put 8% down on a house that went for $320,000. Yes, we were forced to make PMI payments of $120 per month for two years ($2,880 total). In that same time the value of our house appreciated over $100,000 and mortgage rates rose over 1 full point.

If we had saved the $30,000 over the first two years that we paid for our mortgage, taxes and PMI and then were able to purchase the exact same house, the 1% rise in interest rates would have resulted in the same monthly payment. However, that house went up $100k during that time frame, so we would not have been able to afford it!

 

[Tink&SquirtsMom]

We did zero down. Used two mortgages, one for 80% paying interest only, one for 20% paying interest (high rate) and principle (no PMI with an 80-20). That was the only way we could squeeze into a mortgage in NorCalifornia. Two years later, and our income has barely changed, but we are able to use the equity to refi into one standard mortgage, 30 year fixed with over 20% down and can easily afford our home and qualify for much more (although we never plan on moving from our first home). We are on track to have our house paid off by the time I am 40 (12 years from now). It was risky to buy that way and I certainly wouldn't recommend it to most (especially with the market cooling now) but at the time home prices were rising faster then we could save (we would have been priced out of our home only 3 months after we bought it, it rose so fast), so this really was the best thing we could have done.

 

[IMISSDISNEY]

We bought in 1999 and put 20% down.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

We bought our house at a foreclosure auction and put 43% down in cash then took advantage of the low interest rates 6 months after we bought it and knocked our mortgage down from 30 years to 20 years with just a small increase in our monthly payment.

I do wish that our property taxes were factored into our payment though. Just got the bill for $2000 for our taxes on the house this year. Ouch!

 

[branv]

Just 3% here, but we can pay our mortgage, all bills in full, invest some and still indulge a little with just one average-level salary (I'm back in school for one year, DH works) so we feel pretty confident about our ability to afford this mortgage. When I go back to work, it's all free to apply to anything else: the plan is 1) 30-50% into savings, 2) at least 2 extra mortgage payments a year and then whatever else we choose. Either way, can you believe our mortgage, including insurance and property taxes, cost us less then our last apartment did? Crazy! We were just very careful to buy a house that wouldn't stretch us.

We were also one of the first to build in this subdivision. A year and a half later and they're now selling this model for $25K more then we paid. So, it's a pretty good thing we didn't wait . Houses aren't moving up insanely rapidly like in other states, but they are going up in our area. Happily, TX isn't one of those bubble real estate areas, and we're in one of the fastest growing counties. Very happy with our decision

 

[comicguy]

We put 0% down because if was finaniced through NYS's SONYMA program. Basicaly they paid all closing cost(If I keep the house less then 10 years I have to pay back closing costs) and guarentee the loan.

 

[hmgolden]

We bought our condo last May and put down about 7%. We took a second mortgage to cover the rest of the 13% and to avoid paying PMI. If we had waited until we had the 20% downpayment, we would have ended up priced out of the condo and the market as a whole since we entered in at the bottom of the market. Our two mortgages are less than what we were paying in rent.

 

[djm99]

We put 3% down in 2000. It was our first home. We are currently looking for #2. It looks like this time, we will put 5% down.

 

[crisi]

I think this is a great point. If you buy your home knowing that your income is due to rise significantly, stretching a bit to make the purchase can make sense. Even though we put down 20%, we also did it when I had been in practice for less than one year. I knew for sure that my income would double within 2-3 years, and it did, which made our mortgage payments a much smaller % of income than it was initially. Plus, we've refinanced twice along the way and lowered our payment even more.

Unfortunately, the reverse is true as well. People often buy houses with two incomes and no children, then have children and either income or their budget takes a hit. There is a need to look at the next few years and project out.

 

[Chris]

1996, 25% down.